[Thoracoscopic esophagectomy].

In recent years, the number of facilities performing thoracoscopic surgery of the esophagus has increased. Thoracoscopic surgery has many advantages, such as a magnification effect, good lighting, and a wide field of view. Esophagectomy requires fine manipulation within a deep and narrow space. Thus, thoracoscopic surgery is suitable for the performance of esophagectomy. The body position during this procedure may be either prone or left lateral decubitus. Because there are advantages in both cases, the relative merits are controversial. The operation time is longer than that of open thoracotomy, but the amount of bleeding is small in most cases of thoracoscopic esophagectomy. There are also some reports that thoracoscopic esophagectomy is comparable with open esophagectomy in terms of radicality and quality of lymph node dissection, and the intensive care unit and hospital stay durations are shortened. Robot-assisted esophagectomy is a promising technology for the fine manipulations and high quality 3-dimensional visualization required in the performance of esophageal thoracoscopic surgery. Thoracoscopic esophagectomy will become more widespread and undergo further development in the future with the spread of robotic surgery and 3-dimensional endoscopic surgery.